Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 September 28

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September 28

<ng> in Old English

Hi, how would a scribe in Alfred the Great's Winchester pronounce <engel>? Roughly /ɛŋɡɛl/? --Kjoonlee 03:19, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Either that or /ɛndʒɛl/ depending on the word's exact phonological history. —Angr 05:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

By the way, in certain contexts, the "ng" of at least some dialects of Old English appears to have gone through a kind of palatal nasal (cf. Italian "gn") phase, to judge how "singed" came out as "seynd" in some Middle English dialects, while the past of meng "to mix" came out as Middle English "meind", "meynd", and the past of sprenge "to sprinkle came out as "spreynd" (similar also to "queint" for "quenched", "cleynt" for "clenched", etc.)... AnonMoos (talk) 17:35, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Synonym of required that starts with "A"

well... anything? Thanks, 76.187.43.14 (talk) 03:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

"Appropriate" could fit in certain contexts, although it's not really a synonym for "required", generally speaking. -- JackofOz (talk) 04:15, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

"Asked" in some contexts ? Try WordWeb, nifty application, basically an interface for WordNet, an english dictionary/thesaurus from Princeton University, plus web access to Wikipedia/Wiktionary/other relevant stuff. Equendil Talk 04:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

"Assumed" in a job advertisement is a bit of a weasely alternative for "required". As in "It is assumed that the applicant has extensive experience in whatever..." --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 12:26, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Comparitives in other languages

In English, I think, single-word comparatives always tend toward more — dry, drier, driest. Are there languages where the construction is toward less — dry, lessdry, leastdry? Thanks. Saintrain (talk) 13:18, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

English: little, less, least. If I am a little drunk, you are less intoxicated and the subsequent poster is the least wobbly, than B (you) is less drunk than I am and C (as yet unknown) is almost sober, so the series goes towards a decrease in the property X. PS: I know, that´s not what you actually meant in the query. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 14:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's my point. "little, less, least" is getting more and more "less" :-) Saintrain (talk) 14:50, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

So what you're looking for is a language in which the words for "wetter" and "wettest" are derived from the word for "dry"? —Angr 20:40, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In the same scenario, A, B and C could be respectively little, more and most drunk. In that sense, the progression is towards less and less "little". -- JackofOz (talk) 20:50, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In German, as the second poster above is well aware, the term "Wetter" may, indeed, refer to an increase in precipitation. On the other hand, "Wetter" may indicate a reduction in humidity and mean "drier". "Confusinger and confusinger", cried --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 20:54, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

If anybody doesn't understand what Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM means: the German term "Wetter" means weather. ;-) -- heuler06 (talk) 21:31, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Angr, yes. That's about it. Certainly the concepts of least wet, less wet, more wet and most wet are easily understood but English only has the words wetter and wettest. There's no wet-derived term for less wet etc. Are there other languages where there's a less wet but no more wet? Or both less wet and more wet? Saintrain (talk) 23:32, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

English also has -ish: dryish, dry, drier, driest. Bazza (talk) 12:45, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

"What" instead of "that"

In which dialect(s) of English do they say "what" instead of "that"? They made fun of it sometimes on Monty Python (ex. "It's people like you what cause unrest.") Thanks, Mike R (talk) 19:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

That could be any working-class British (at least Cockney and Glasgow patter). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:47, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Not quite what you're asking, but some Australians say things like "I'm a better (singer, whatever) than what he is", rather than "... than he is". I don't know whether this is confined to Australia or not. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:57, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I've heard Stephen King say it in an interview. "...and came back to kill the guy what done him wrong." It may be more widespread than you think. Matt Deres (talk) 14:12, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

In Indian English, sometimes they'll use "what" instead of "that". For instance, "The information what I had given you", or "The conversation what we had yesterday". This could be a reflection of the British influence on India.

normal/good/fine/etc.

"How are you?" "Fine thanks." Here, "fine" is neutral, almost meaningless. (In American English sometimes the answer is "Great!", which sounds like hyperbole to ears more used to the the British variety.) But if the weather is fine, it is indeed a good day. If a patient is fine, it might be doctorspeak for something rather different from "good". COnversely, if you ask someone how they are in Russian, the answer is "Normalno" -- one's state of being doesn't usually rise above normalness. So my question is, what languages or dialects treat the baseline of being-ness as Good, and which ones treat it as Average?

Hmm... here in Berlin it's hard to tell, because in the local dialect of German the usual answer to "How are you?" is "Thank you." —Angr 20:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In Romanian, the answer is "bine", which means good. Interesting question, by the way. 80.123.210.172 (talk) 20:45, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In Swahili I gather that the usual answer is "Good (but...)" —Tamfang (talk) 21:52, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

The famous French "ça va" [sa va] must be mentionned. The dialogue is usually: "Ça va?" answer: "Ça va." Which very litterally means: "Is it going?" "It's going." But I would say that "bien" (good) is the unexpressed baseline. --Lgriot (talk) 00:14, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Heh. I say that, in English. Somebody asks me "How's it going?" and I answer with, "It's going." Corvus cornix_talk 18:54, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I say "bit by bit." —Tamfang (talk) 05:46, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

… or "so far so good." —Tamfang (talk) 02:03, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

In Chinese the usual greeting Ni hao ma? translates as "You good?", and IIRC the reply is usually "Good" (Hao). Similarly in Maori "Kei te pai koe?" (Are you good?) is frequently answered with "Kei te pai" (I am good). That one's a little more ambivalent, though, since "pai" can mean "well" as well as "good", and it also forms part of phrases meaning "not so good" like "tōna pai nei" (which means "so-so"). Grutness...wha? 00:29, 5 October 2008 (UTC)